


Do Heating Droids Dream of Electric Cats

by mattygroves



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Jess doesn't understand feelings, Minor Original Character(s), droids who are cats, feelings what feelings, hoth was a shit show, longing glances, original droid character - Freeform, stormpilot mention, you're feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-26
Updated: 2016-02-18
Packaged: 2018-05-16 08:28:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5821321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mattygroves/pseuds/mattygroves
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rey is always cold and Jess finally decides to do something about it. No, not that, get your mind out the gutter. Well…maybe later, that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One Man's Trash, Etc.

**Author's Note:**

> A little pre-slash fic about Jess helping Rey adjust to base life after she returns from finding Luke. I made up a droid, don't hate me.

Jess wasn’t sure how much longer she could take this. It usually started with Rey shivering bravely in the mess hall and insisting she was fine, it was “just a bit nippier than on Jakku.” Wexley would snort and Jess would elbow him in the stomach, causing him spit food on his plate. 

Her mother would really be horrified if she knew this was what passed for Officer Behavior in the Resistance (all those years of education and training, and the expense!). At least her mother hadn’t heard about “Pants Off-Dance Off Tuesdays.” Yet.

Finn would offer Rey his (Poe’s) jacket, and put it over her shoulders before she could protest. Then he would spend the rest of the meal sneaking longing glances at the jacket (Jess was pretty sure the longing was directed at the jacket, not the wearer) while Poe was sneaking longing glances at Finn. 

All this while Jess was just trying to eat a decent meal between a grueling schedule of air raids on First Order holdings. She could barely fit in a decent night’s sleep; was it so much to ask for one meal where people weren’t spitting up or drooling over each other in her vicinity?

Obviously, she couldn’t just sit at a different table. And leave Rey all alone with those men-children. That would just be rude.

These were all the reasons she rehearsed in her head later that day as she led Rey down a long corridor in a disused portion of the base, not far from the hangars.

“You’re not going to murder me, are you?” Rey asked with a laugh in her voice.

“Just trust me. And I’m not stupid enough to go up against a Jedi.”

They passed a number of beaten up metal doors that all looked the same.

“Here we are,” Jess said, opening the door with a rusty creak.

“Oh, wow,” Rey said.

“I know. I come here when I need to think. Or not think.”

The room was filled with, well, junk. A lot of junk. Gear parts, depleted power cells, rusty half-exploded comms.

“It’s amazing,” Rey said.

“Help yourself to anything. They’ve just been carting this junk around for decades in case someone needs parts for repairs. Most of it’s worthless and no one’s bothered to organize or catalogue it in years. It’s all leftovers from old bases, and someone keeps authorizing its transfer and I keep finding it stashed away where no one else would bother too look. You’d be surprised what I’ve managed to hobble together.”

“Thanks, Jess, I—”

Jess was momentarily distracted by the look in Rey’s eyes, like she’d just received the best birthday present in her life. Which might be true, but Jess didn’t want to think about that. It was giving her a pang in her chest she didn’t know what do with.

“When’s your birthday?”

“What?”

“Never mind! I actually brought you here for a specific reason—ta-dah!”

She pointed to a small black hunk of metal in the middle of the room.

“It’s a—” Rey knitted her eyebrows.

“It’s a heating droid! It’s leftover from the shit-show that was the Hoth base. It’s a class-two environmental droid, an EH. It follows you around and, you know, warms you up.”

“Oh Jess, this is amazing!” she knelt to get a closer look.

It was solid black, but missing part of it’s outer paneling. It had four tiny rotating wheels (clearly not meant for rugged terrain) and its upper paneling was perforated (presumably where the heat came from).

“I’m sure you’ll have no trouble getting it functioning again, but let me know if you need parts, or help, or anything.”

“Thanks,” Rey was already involved in the delicate process of removing the EH-Unit’s paneling to examine the state of it’s wiring. 

“I’ll leave you to it,” Jess said, closing the door as quietly as she could.


	2. Keeping Warm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey has completed her heating droid and it is adorable. Everyone thinks so. Well, not BB-8, but everyone else.

#

Rey did have the EH unit working in no time. Seeing the diminutive black droid following the sweep of Rey’s Jedi robes became a familiar sight to many on the base. She and Jess hadn’t been able to replace it’s missing black paneling, so it now had a white patch on it’s front, leftover from a Rebellion-era R2 unit.

In her quarters, Rey quickly assimilated to the droid’s quirks. As she settled in bed for the night, it would beep until she brought it up on the bed to settle down beside her. Its outer paneling never got too hot, but it emitted constant warmth that Rey found comforting. The droid would settle against her back or stomach and give off a gentle, low whirr through the night.

#

BB-8 was not jealous, whatever Friend Poe said. (BB-8 never referred to Poe as “master,” because Poe said it made him feel dirty and not in the fun way.)

“Don’t worry, little buddy, she’ll come back to you. It’s just a fling during the rainy season. Just wait for the temperature to rise a bit, and she’ll be like, EH-who?”

Poe gave it a pat on the head and turned back to his X-wing repairs.

BB-8 was not jealous; friend Poe was making a classic human error in judgement. Jealous? The cutest droid in the galaxy? Of an EH unit, no less. Please.

#

Luke did not understand Rey’s attachment to the EH unit.

“I can teach you to maintain body temperature using the Force, you know.”

“But I like it, it’s sweet,” Rey said. “And it was a gift from Jess, so—“

“You’re blushing.”

“Shut up. You’re blushing.”

#

Jess was a little disappointed fixing the EH unit had gone so fast. It had been a week since Rey had popped by her quarters or the hangar to borrow a tool or get her opinion on the droid’s inner workings.

“It’s done!” Rey had announced one day, the EH unit buzzing and whirring around her feet, emitting a soft and cozy atmospheric warmth.

“We can paint the white panel, if you want it to match,” Jess had replied.

“I don’t know, I kind of like it this way. It’s distinctive.”

#

When she hears the buzzer in her quarters, Jess has just hopped out of the fresher and is drying her hair with a towel. (Her mother would not approve, think of the damage you’re doing, Jessika, split ends!)

“Just a sec!” she calls, slipping into pants and a tank quickly.

“Hey,” Rey says, when the door slides open.

“Hey,” Jess says, her hand going to the back of her neck. “You didn’t bring your little stalker.”

“What?”

“Sorry, dumb joke, the EH—”

“Oh, right. It’s just, I had another idea about keeping warm, if you want to hear about it.”

“Um.”

Rey steps through the threshold letting the door slide shut behind her. Jess gives a barely perceptible nod and then Rey is kissing her and it’s—

Nice.

“Yeah,” says Jess, a little breathless, “I can keep you warm.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's next, you ask with bated breath? Could it be smut?? Oh please, let it be smut. 
> 
> SOOOORRRRRYYYYYY.
> 
> NEXT TIME on As the Heating Droid Turns: FEEEELINNNNGGGSS.
> 
> So many feelings, I can't even tell you.
> 
> *Runs away singing "I'm not sorry!" in Phillipa Soo's gorgeous voice.


	3. Old Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Really gotta come up with a designation for this little guy,” Rey said.
> 
> “I dunno, I kinda like just calling ‘eh,’” Jess said, with a shrug to go along with the sound of the droid’s name.
> 
> For that, Jess got a punch in the arm.

The base quickly became used to Rey’s other source of warmth, too, as they saw her in the mess, the hangars, the hallways with Jess draped around her shoulder. The little black EH unit was usually in the vicinity, too. Rey got very, very cold sometimes, okay.

“Really gotta come up with a designation for this little guy,” Rey said.

“I dunno, I kinda like just calling ‘eh,’” Jess said, with a shrug to go along with the sound of the droid’s name.

For that, Jess got a punch in the arm.

So it may seem surprising that General Organa hadn’t seen Rey’s new pet (if ever a droid was a pet, this one was). But, being the busy woman that she was, it was a few weeks before they crossed paths.

Rey was on her way to meet Finn for dinner, Poe and Jess both being on a mission.

“Fuck me,” said the General.

Everyone in the busy corridor froze and turned toward the sound.

“I can’t believe it,” the General’s eyes were fixed on the EH unit.

“Is there something wrong with my droid, General?” Rey asked, wide-eyed.

The General must really be distracted if she didn’t try to correct Rey about calling her “Leia, not General.”

“No, dear, I—” Leia collected herself. “Where did you find this EH unit?”

“Um, Jess, I mean, Pava found it with some old junk. I’d been really cold, and she said it was leftover from that shit-show Hoth—” Rey blushed furiously, “I mean—”

The General noticed that everyone around them was frozen in place and with a wave of her hand she sent the onlookers on their way.

“No, it’s alright, Echo Base was a shit-show, I said so myself at the time. Han was so grumpy from the cold; it was like dealing with a child. We would have massive arguments in the corridors and eventually people just got so used to it they would just push right past us and go about their business,” she chuckled at the memory.

“We shouldn’t have just taken it, I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s alright, junk is junk, and you seem to have fixed it up just fine. Han had one just like this. Well, the white spot is new.” She knelt down towards the droid, “What’s your designation?”

The droid beeped.

“42,” Rey repeated, “I can’t believe I never thought to ask, I just assumed its memory would be fried after all this time.”

“42,” said Leia, quietly, “You were Han Solo’s EH unit, weren’t you?”

The droid beeped and nearly toppled itself in its excitement. Leia laid a hand on it to steady it.

“Hello again, little friend,” she stood after a moment with tears in her eyes. “Han mostly kept EH-42 in his quarters. He didn’t think it was manly to have it trailing him around the base.”

This made Rey laugh even as her eyes filled with tears.

“I did catch him sneaking it into the Med-Bay in the middle of the night, once. He left it snuggled with Luke after the Tauntaun incident. Luke never even woke up. Han was such a softy at heart, you know.”

“I know.”

“But mostly I remember it’s gentle whirring through the night, much more comforting than the howling wind on the surface of Hoth outside. Han would bring it to my quarters as a peace offering after a fight, or I would go to his.”

The little droid whirred a little louder than usual. If Rey didn’t know better, she would say it whistled.

“Hush, you,” said Leia, fondly.

“You should keep it,” Rey said, “He would have wanted you to have it.”

Leia pulled her into one of her engulfing hugs.

“You’re a bit of a softy, too, my dear,” she said, holding Rey at arms length.

“Don’t tell your brother, he’ll make me do even more drills,” she grinned.

“You should keep it. That’s what Han would have wanted. And from what I hear, you need it more than I do,” she squeezed Rey’s shoulder’s and started to move away.

“Thank you, Leia,” said Rey.

“You’re very welcome, Rey,” said Leia.

Jess was totally getting a punch in the arm when she got back, and then probably a kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's not explicitly canon, but to me its pretty obvious that Han and Leia were already fucking on Hoth. I just rewatched TESB and their fight scene is so funny with the people just pushing past them with this like "uh, again" look on their faces, I just had to include it.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this fluffy little Fic, check out my other Star Wars stuff :) :) :)
> 
> I'll love you forever.
> 
> Let me know what you think by leaving kudos or a comment, or both!
> 
> ***I had to finish this story as soon as possible because my life is being taken over by an angsty In the Heights/Star Wars crossover I'm working on. It's happening, get on board (subscribe to me if that sounds like something you'd like!)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, let me know what you think! Check out my Finn/Poe modern AU story, too :)


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